Discussions about holding onto your faith and beliefs, whether by staying LDS or by exploring and participating in other churches or faiths. The belief in any higher power (including God, Christ, Buddha, or Jedi) is true in this forum. Be kind to others.

Now that the church has come out of the closet about members being able to pay tithing online, I'm wondering if the amount of tithing paid still is not revealed to the bishop.

I plan to pay some tithing, but it will be nowhere near what would be considered a full tithe (for one thing, I can't afford that). However, I will consider it a full tithe from a NOM-I-own-my-spirituality perspective and would have no problem responding yes to the question of whether or not it was a full tithe.

Anyone know if the bishops get a report from HQ as to how much tithing a person pays online?

At 70 years-old, my older self would tell my younger self to use the words, "f*ck off" much more frequently. --Helen Mirren

Spouseman pays online and the records go to our ward. It would be nice to give anonymously, but I'm not sure how to go about that.

According to this link and the way things were done before the church made online payment and official option, it's my understanding that one could make arrangements for paying through your bank's bill pay function. This was done by setting up the situation through email and the email address should be in the link. This is easier than snail mail, but it's my understanding this gets recorded as funds for your ward paid by you. The downside with this is it's my understanding that the amount paid per month is something more like automatic withdrawal and some people report problems with varying the amount.

The other method is to fill out a tithing slip, write a check (cash probably works, too, but is less secure) and mail the donation directly to church headquarters.

It's my understanding both these methods will get recorded as a donation to your ward by you. The bishop will get a report that you have paid tithing directly to headquarters, but he won't be informed how much. I also gather that two reports are generated from headquarters and mailed directly to you. One is a November report for tithing settlement and the other is a donation receipt that is sent with timing meant for use for tax purposes.

Of course, this could all be faith promoting rumor now that the church has rolled out an official way to pay online, but I plan to give one of these options are try.

At 70 years-old, my older self would tell my younger self to use the words, "f*ck off" much more frequently. --Helen Mirren

Bill pay is still anonymous, when you email them to get instructions on how to set up your bank billpay, a little extra insurance would be to request that anonymity (IE, "I would like to set up anonymous billpay with my bank, please send instructions for ___ bank"). I check with my friend the finance clerk from time to time and he says nothing comes through. I have been on it for several years now. I always email my bishop my declaration during tithing settlement and he has never once questioned or asked for statements. YMMV.

Also, billpay is not automatic unless you make it so on your banks online system.

Bill pay is still anonymous, when you email them to get instructions on how to set up your bank billpay, a little extra insurance would be to request that anonymity (IE, "I would like to set up anonymous billpay with my bank, please send instructions for ___ bank"). I check with my friend the finance clerk from time to time and he says nothing comes through. I have been on it for several years now. I always email my bishop my declaration during tithing settlement and he has never once questioned or asked for statements. YMMV.

Also, billpay is not automatic unless you make it so on your banks online system.

The voice of experience. Thank you.

At 70 years-old, my older self would tell my younger self to use the words, "f*ck off" much more frequently. --Helen Mirren

The other method is to fill out a tithing slip, write a check (cash probably works, too, but is less secure) and mail the donation directly to church headquarters.

If you fill out a tithing slip with your name/address on it, or pay with a check with your name/address on it, they will look up your membership and make sure that the local ward knows about it.

If you want to go to great lengths to be anonymous, paying with an anonymous money order, or with cash, and if filling out a "slip" simply fill in the amount where you want the funds to "go" and mail anonymously it to headquarters. I"m pretty sure they won't reject it.

Faith does not give you the answers, it just stops you asking the questions. -Frater Ravus

Keep the company of those who seek the truth - run from those who have found it -Václav Havel

The other method is to fill out a tithing slip, write a check (cash probably works, too, but is less secure) and mail the donation directly to church headquarters.

If you fill out a tithing slip with your name/address on it, or pay with a check with your name/address on it, they will look up your membership and make sure that the local ward knows about it.

If you want to go to great lengths to be anonymous, paying with an anonymous money order, or with cash, and if filling out a "slip" simply fill in the amount where you want the funds to "go" and mail anonymously it to headquarters. I"m pretty sure they won't reject it.

I have thought of this.

There is one time when I was a member and I wanted to pay tithing absolutely confidentially, but didn't know how to do that. I took some cash, put it in an envelope and slid it under a random bishop's door.

Truth.

Back to original subject, I'm going for temple recommend status.

At 70 years-old, my older self would tell my younger self to use the words, "f*ck off" much more frequently. --Helen Mirren

We've been on the bill pay system since 2008. I will verify that it works and it is so simple. You can request the sign up form from the email address on the tech.lds.org link abov: donations @ ldschurch . org. If you want to PM me I can email the form to you as well. Since it is set up by you, through your bank's bill pay system, you can specify when, how much, and to what account you want to send money. You can change the amounts or stop anytime you want, just as with any bill pay account.

Every month I get a statement from the donations email verifying receipt. At the end of the year I get a receipt with ALL the donations, including the ones (fast offering) we make to the ward. Because all the donations are linked through dh's member number, it is not anonymous to the corporation, but it is not accessible to your ward clerk. The year end receipt we get from the ward ONLY includes the ward (FO) donations. We, meaning dh, has never been hasselled by the bishop at tithing settlement because of the FO only receipt. He just tells the bishop we pay through bill pay.

We've been on the bill pay system since 2008. I will verify that it works and it is so simple. You can request the sign up form from the email address on the tech.lds.org link abov: donations @ ldschurch . org. If you want to PM me I can email the form to you as well. Since it is set up by you, through your bank's bill pay system, you can specify when, how much, and to what account you want to send money. You can change the amounts or stop anytime you want, just as with any bill pay account.

Every month I get a statement from the donations email verifying receipt. At the end of the year I get a receipt with ALL the donations, including the ones (fast offering) we make to the ward. Because all the donations are linked through dh's member number, it is not anonymous to the corporation, but it is not accessible to your ward clerk. The year end receipt we get from the ward ONLY includes the ward (FO) donations. We, meaning dh, has never been hasselled by the bishop at tithing settlement because of the FO only receipt. He just tells the bishop we pay through bill pay.

If you must remain a tithe payer, this is definitely the way to go.

Wonderful info! Thank you!

Let me see if I can work it out on my own, but may PM you for the form.

At 70 years-old, my older self would tell my younger self to use the words, "f*ck off" much more frequently. --Helen Mirren

We've been on the bill pay system since 2008. I will verify that it works and it is so simple. You can request the sign up form from the email address on the tech.lds.org link abov: donations @ ldschurch . org. If you want to PM me I can email the form to you as well. Since it is set up by you, through your bank's bill pay system, you can specify when, how much, and to what account you want to send money. You can change the amounts or stop anytime you want, just as with any bill pay account.

Every month I get a statement from the donations email verifying receipt. At the end of the year I get a receipt with ALL the donations, including the ones (fast offering) we make to the ward. Because all the donations are linked through dh's member number, it is not anonymous to the corporation, but it is not accessible to your ward clerk. The year end receipt we get from the ward ONLY includes the ward (FO) donations. We, meaning dh, has never been hasselled by the bishop at tithing settlement because of the FO only receipt. He just tells the bishop we pay through bill pay.

I just signed up for bill pay a few months back. They have two separate sets of instructions, and you MUST request the "confidential/ not visible" option or they will still report to your ward. I have not been signed up long enough to know whether my ward can still see in spite of my request. However, my bill pay donations do appear on my lds.org account.

If you donate via lds.org, login to the account and go to settings, from there you can tick the box to ask for the ward not to print a statement (you can print your own for tax) but technically the bishop or clerk could look it up if they wanted.

I just signed up for bill pay a few months back. They have two separate sets of instructions, and you MUST request the "confidential/ not visible" option or they will still report to your ward. I have not been signed up long enough to know whether my ward can still see in spite of my request. However, my bill pay donations do appear on my lds.org account.

If you donate via lds.org, login to the account and go to settings, from there you can tick the box to ask for the ward not to print a statement (you can print your own for tax) but technically the bishop or clerk could look it up if they wanted.

Good to know. I was wondering if or how the online payment of the church's website figured into this.

At 70 years-old, my older self would tell my younger self to use the words, "f*ck off" much more frequently. --Helen Mirren

To anyone still paying tithing and willing to talk about it - do you pay "10%" or just toss a few bucks so you can say at least you paid something?

Have you ever had a bishop actually look at your tithing donations during TR interview?

I have heard of a few cases where a bishop expressed some skepticism over the amount of tithing paid for an individual. I don't think it happens often and I don't recall any cases at all when I was a ward clerk. It's far more likely to happen when you are employed by the LDS church. Ken Clark is a former CES instructor and vocal ex-Mormon. He talks about being confronted by bishops who did not appreciate any deviation from paying tithing on "gross" salary and staying current by paying monthly.

I'm not planning on paying 10% on gross or net. I'm not even sure about 10% on nuanced increase. Just line upon line, precept on precept. Here a little and there a little until I hit an amount that feels right.

At 70 years-old, my older self would tell my younger self to use the words, "f*ck off" much more frequently. --Helen Mirren